Nest Labs has halted sales of its Nest Protect smoke alarms, amid concerns
that they may be unsafe

Nest Labs, the home automation company bought by Google for $3.2 billion in January, has halted sales of its Nest Protect smoke alarms, amid concerns that they may be unsafe.

Nest Protect has a feature called Nest Wave that enables the user to turn off their alarm with a wave of the hand. In a letter to customers, Nest chief executive Tony Fadell said that recent laboratory tests had raised concerns that this feature could be unintentionally activated, and that this could delay an alarm going off in the case if a real fire.

"We identified this problem ourselves and are not aware of any customers who have experienced this, but the fact that it could even potentially happen is extremely important to me and I want to address it immediately," said Fadell.

"We feel that the best and safest thing to do is to immediately disable the Nest Wave feature to resolve the issue and remove any safety concerns. While we fix Nest Wave, we have also halted sales of all new Nest Protect alarms to ensure no one buys an alarm that needs an immediate update."

Once Nest has resolved the issue, it will update its software to turn the Nest Wave feature back on. However, this will only happen after extensive testing and once the company has received approval from safety agencies in the US, Canada and UK. Fadell expects this to take at least two or three months.

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The company has offered to give a complete refund to any customer who does not want to keep their Nest Protect smoke alarm.

"We're enormously sorry for the inconvenience caused by this issue. The team and I are dedicated to ensuring that we can stand behind each Nest product that comes into your home, and your 100 per cent satisfaction and safety are what motivates us," he said.

Google's acquisition of Nest Labs in January ranks as the second largest in Google’s history, behind its $9.4bn acquisition of Motorola Mobility, and is expected to herald the start of a major push into consumer devices.

Nest Labs specialises in re-inventing common household gadgets, such as thermostats and smoke alarms, in the same way that Apple reinvented the music player and the mobile phone with its iPod and iPhone devices.

Many of its gadgets are internet-connected, so they can communicate with other household devices or learn the user’s habits and adjust themselves accordingly.

The news comes just days after Nest launched its Learning Thermostat, which claims to offer consumers up to 29 per cent on heating bills and removes the need to programme your boiler. It can automatically sense when a house is empty, and can also be controlled remotely via a smartphone or computer.